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A REVIEW  OF 

RAILWAY  ECONOMICS 


A Collective  Catalogue  of  Books 
In  Fourteen  American  Libraries 

BY  THE 

Bureau  of  Railway  Economics 

Washington,  D.  C. 


By 

A von  der  Leyen 

Author,  Editor  of  the  Archie  fur  Eisenbahnwesen,  Councillor  of 
State  in  Prussia,  formerly  Director  of  Railways  in  the 
Prussian  Ministry  of  Public  Works. 


Translation  from  the  Archie  fur  EisenbahnWcsert, 
November-December  1912, 


WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 
1912 


I °rA\e.\v  e_ 

jjfj  * jdtP  9 

The  Bureau  of  Railway  Economics,  Washington.  Railway  Economics.  A 
collective  catalogue  of  books  in  fourteen  American  libraries.  Printed  by  the 
University  of  Chicago  Press,  May,  1912.  x,  445  pp.  8°. 

During  recent  years  in  the  United  States  of  America  there  has  been 
much  investigation  and  discussion  of  railways  on  their  economic  side. 
The  causes  for  this  are  to  be  found  in  the  unsatisfactory  conditions  in 
f railway  affairs,  rates,  financial  management,  relations  with  employees, 
etc.,  and  also  in  the  repeated  attempts  which  have  been  made  to  im- 
prove recognized  evils  by  means  of  Federal  and  State  laws.  In  all 
» this  discussion  one  thing  was  felt  to  be  more  and  more  needed.  Al- 
though there  are  many  thoroughly  trained  men  in  the  United  States 
who  are  engaged  in  railway  matters,  men  educated  in  both  practice 
and  theory,  a deep  knowledge  of  the  inner  meaning  of  railway  affairs 
is  lacking  among  the  people  and  in  the  legislative  bodies.  Even  the 
great  railway  systems  and  their  heads  manage  chiefly  according  to 
their  own  experience  and  according  to  custom,  not  according  to  general 
fundamental  principles.  Moreover,  there  has  been  lack  of  an  exact 
knowledge  of  the  railways  of  other  countries,  and  therefore  of  the 
possibility  of  making  comparisons  and  conclusions  from  foreign  ex- 
perience to  aid  in  handling  the  home  railways. 

These  needs  were  considered  at  a meeting  of  railway  presidents  in 
the  spring  of  1910.  To  meet  them  it  was  decided  to  create  a new  or- 
ganization, which  should  have  for  its  object  the  investigation  of  the 
economic  situation  of  the  railroads  of  the  United  States  and  of  other 
countries  and  should  make  the  results  of  its  investigations  broadly 
accessible.  For  this  purpose  a bureau  was  established  under  the  name 
“The  Bureau  of  Railway  Economics,”  which  was  opened  on  the  first 
of  August,  1910,  and  can  thus  look  back  now  on  an  activity  of  more 
than  two  years.  The  presidents  of  six  of  the  largest  railway  systems 
are ‘members  of  the  committee  and  the  managing  director  is  Logan  G. 
> McPherson,  a specialist  in  railway  affairs,  well  known  to  readers  of 
j this  journal,  and  extremely  well  trained  in  both  practical  and  theoreti- 
l cal  lines.  At  the  head  of  the  statistical  department  is  Frank  Haigh 
>J3ixon,  a specialist  also  well  known  to  us  through  numerous  works, 
r statistical  and  otherwise,  and  Richard  H.  Johnston,  recently  of  the 
I y Library  of  Congress,  is  librarian.  The  Bureau  is  situated  in  Washing- 
^ ton.  Its  duty  has  been  to  keep  in  close  touch  with  the  Interstate  Com- 
merce  Commission,  and  also  to  work  over  the  publications  of  that 
* Commission  and  make  the  results  clear  to  the  widest  circles. 

The  Bureau  began  its  work  immediately  after  opening.  It  publishes 
monthly  statistics  of  American  railways  based  on  the  monthly  reports 


4 


filed  by  the  railways  with  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission,  and 
has  published  a number  of  monographs,  some  of  them  most  valuable. 
In  some  of  these  strictly  American  conditions  are  treated  and  in  others 
comparisons  between  American  and  other  railways  are  drawn  up  from 
a strictly  scientific  point  of  view.  The  newest  and  most  comprehensive 
publication  is  the  one  named  at  the  head  of  this  article,  a catalogue  of 
the  literature  on  the  economic  side  of  railway  affairs.  It  contains  a 
systematically  arranged  collection  of  titles  of  the  contents  of  14  Ameri- 
can libraries,  among  them  9 university  libraries,  the  Library  of  Con- 
gress, the  library  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission,  and  that  of 
the  Bureau  itself.  With  each  entry  there  is  a notation  showing  in 
which  libraries  the  book  is  to  be  found. 

The  arrangement  of  the  catalogue  is  as  follows : In  the  first  division 
(to  page  140)  are  general  works  on  the  development  and  history  of 
railways,  biographies  of  individuals,  and  Jfien  works  on  the  various 
departments  of  railway  science  (railways  and  the  state,  administration, 
operation,  and  traffic).  The  second  division  has  to  do  with  the  rail- 
ways of  the  respective  countries,  among  which  those  of  the  United 
States  and  of  the  other  American  countries  fill  the  largest  space  (pp. 
141-348)  ; then  follow  Europe  (pp.  349-400),  Africa,  Asia  and  Aus- 
tralia. In  a special  division  (pp.  412-424)  are  collected  periodicals 
and  official  proceedings  and  at  the  end  is  an  alphabetically  arranged 
list  of  names,  which  makes  the  use  of  the  catalogue  most  convenient. 

An  inspection  of  the  work  shows  how  rich  the  collections  of  the 
United  States,  are  in  railway  literature,  and  not  only  in  that  of  the 
railways  of  the  United  States,  which  appears  to  be  fully  represented, 
but  also  in  that  of  other  countries.  A large  number  of  older  works, 
rare  even  among  us,  on  the  history  of  the  English,  German,  French, 
and  other  railways,  are  to  be  had  in  American  libraries.  On  the  other 
hand,  I miss  almost  entirely  the  literature  of  the  international  railway 
freight  law,  and  the  commentaries  of  Gerstner,  Rosenthal,  Blume-  and 
others  are  not  mentioned.  Only  the  bulletin  of  the  central  office  at 
Bern  is  to  be  found.  The  name  of  Eger,  a man  of  remarkable  pro- 
duction in  various  fields,  is  missing.1  It  is  just  the  railway  freight 
law,  and  especially  the  international  freight  law  of  middle  Europe,  that 
should  be  of  particular  interest  for  railway  specialists  and'  teachers  of 
political  economy  in  the  United  States.  Further,  the  libraries  do  not 
have  that  very  valuable  history  of  the  railroads  of  the  Austro-Hun- 
garian monarchy,  together  with  the  two  continuation  volumes.2  These 

1 The  preface  to  the  catalogue  specifically  states  that  books  on  general  railway 
law  are  not  included.  (B.  R.  E.) 

2 This  history  is  listed  on  page  352  of  the  catalogue,  under  the  name  of  the 
association  publishing  it.  (B.  R.  E.) 


5 


are  omissions  which  struck  me  as  I examined  the  book  and  which  do 
not  at  all  lessen  its  value.  But  perhaps  the  Bureau  of  Railway  Eco- 
nomics will  take  occasion  to  examine  the  catalogue  of  the  Library  of 
the  Prussian  Ministry  of  Public  Works  and  thereby  enlarge  the  con- 
tents of  its  own  collection  so  far  as  its  means  allow. 

The  work  is  intended  to  serve  as  an  aid  in  the  study  of  railway  mat- 
ters, and  for  this  purpose,  according  to  my  opinion,  it  is  excellently 
suited,  not  only  in  the  United  States,  but  also  in  other  countries.  For 
the  European  specialist  the  lists  of  American  works  are  particularly 
useful.  The  make-up  is  excellent,  the  print  clear  and  plain.  In  Ger- 
many the  book  is  to  be  obtained  through  Th.  Stauffer  in  Leipzig,  Uni- 
versitatsstrasse  26,  the  representative  of  the  University  of  Chicago 
Press. 


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